Unbiased Stoner / Sludge / Doom reviews.

Month: January 2016

Hailing from Helsinki in Finland, Hundred Headless Horseman are a self-proclaimed ‘psychadelic death/sludge’ band, and after listening to their EP (released in the summer of last year), I have to agree.

The four piece, made up of Anssi Soininen (Drums), Antti Sundberg (Guitar), Miika Tams (Bass guitar / Backing vocals) and Valtteri Virolainen (Guitar / Vocals / Recording / Mixing) have collectively recorded the subconscious thoughts of some sort of huge Nordic beast, lumbering through a darkened forest, occasionally giving chase to its prey. This EP is a veritable slab of morose, melancholy sludge, interwoven with sporadic death metal passages that lay the foundation for HHH’s almost crazed brand of heavy psychedelia.

While all the tracks on this EP are great, the track that stands above the rest for me is ‘Draken’. It’s an unrelenting display of lo-fi, heavy psych greatness and in a strange way reminds me almost of Cathedral. Having said that, every track on this release is fantastic and worthy of any sludger’s playlist.

Hundred Headless Horseman EP is available as ‘name your price’ on the band’s Bandcamp page, but as always we’d encourage you to support the band and throw anything you can spare their way.

Doom / Stoner aficionados will know that Italy has exported some truly stellar bands/acts through the years. It’s like a shadowy assassin, lurking in dark corners, occasionally throwing bands like knives into the crowd of more established countries we normally find these sorts of bands in. There is however, definitely a burgeoning Italian scene, with plenty of bands following in the footsteps of its pioneers; stalwarts of the genre such as Ufomammut. Organ is one such band.

Organ is a four-piece consisting of Alessandro Brun (Guitar/ Vocals), Luca Rizzardi (Guitar/ Vocals), Alessandro De Pellegrin (Bass) and Giulio Fabbro (Drums). The band hails from Belluno, a town in the Northern part of Italy. Tetro is their first release and was partially self-produced.

Tetro is a five-part slab of angry, fuzzed-out doom. Riffs here are aplenty, delivered with a ferocious abrasiveness while haunting psych influenced lead lines show their face every so often. Backing them up, as if it’s being held back from getting in a fight, is the nicely present bass that’s packing a load of furious crunch to its tone. The drums here are great too. Giulio does a fantastic job of supplying a stompy foundation for the others to build upon and doesn’t fall into the trap drummers so often do of making their beats as complex as possible. Last but not least are the angst-filled vocals, constantly amidst swathes of reverb and delay.

All these elements together create a snarling, almost eerie sound, offset by the atmospheric, psych-inspired elements that so often pervade Italian music of this persuasion.

If you’re looking for a doom release that’s chock-full of weighty, abrasive riffs that takes inspiration from heavyweights such as Electric Wizard, look no further than Tetro by Organ.

Starmonger are a new two-piece from Paris, France. Instrumental and vocal duties are split equally between the duo, comprised of Zdaive on bass/vocals and Urthur on guitars/drums. The band play a mix of stoner rock and heavily synthesised psych/space rock.

Revelation is the first release from Starmonger and is a two track demo; by the sounds of it, an excellent taste of things to come too!

Starting off strong with ‘Wanderer’, Starmonger show us their psych capabilities with a swirling tune bursting with spaced-out riffage. However, it’s in the second track, ‘Tell Me’, where the band really shines. While it’s much more a blues/stoner rock affair, the band still manage to retain their spacey sound, especially towards the end where a reverby solo washes over a Truckfighters-esque riff like a rocket ship hurtling through space.

While the main influence here in terms of riffs are your usual stoner rock crowd, there are hints of bands such as Baroness here. Every so often there’ll be an excellent vocal harmony or a burst of a different time signature. Hopefully the band will expand upon this on their next release to really cement their stand out sound.

As usual, Revelation is available on bandcamp as ‘name your price’, but if you can spare some cash, please do throw it their way.

Projet RL are a lo-fi doom/post-punk four piece from Quebec, Canada. The self-produced ‘Earthburnt’ is the third release from the band and is a great amalgamation of the best parts of their earlier work.

To truly appreciate the brilliant sound that Projet RL has created, listening is paramount; simple words struggle to do it justice. There are two genres here – folk tinged post punk and retro doom metal – in an eternal battle, fighting for prime position on the record as a whole, as opposed to a hybrid of both each time. Most bands would struggle to pull this off, but Projet RL seems to be able to flick between the two with ease.

The actual instrumentation and tones are polarised but still blended in a cohesive way. Fuzzed-out, rounded off bass is attacked by the jagged guitars and lo-fi vocals, all underpinned by drums that wouldn’t sound out of place on a 70’s psych record.

Earthburnt, along with the band’s other releases, is available on Bandcamp. If you’re a fan of lo-fi genre melding fuzz worship, make sure you pick this record up.

Celestial Stag are a psychedelic/sludge metal four piece from Norfolk, VA in the United States. Persia to Aztlan is their latest release.The band combine unrelenting heavy riffs and tribalistic drums with fleeting noise/psych interludes to devastating effect. This EP is the sonic equivalent of wading through a swamp full of alligators; the riffs are full of mid-paced swagger and are weighty as hell.

Fans of bands such as Isis and Baroness will really dig Celestial Stag. While the production quality could be improved to add a bit more weight behind the riffs and the solos could be slightly more thought out, Persia to Aztlan is a bold and heavy opening statement by Celestial Stag of things to come and really helps set them apart from their contemporaries.

The EP is available from the band’s bandcamp page for free/pay what you like (as always we encourage you to support the band and throw some cash their way!)